Disused forge, nortwest of 184 Coleraine Road, Portstewart, County Londonderry, BT55 7PL

Disused Forge, northwest of 184 Coleraine Road, Portstewart

A relatively large single-storey vernacular blacksmith's forge located on the southwest side of Coleraine Road, approximately one and a half miles south of Portstewart town centre. The building is of part pre-1830 and part post-1856 construction, now used as a store.

The forge has walls of whitewashed rubble with an undulating gabled roof of slate, coated in pitch. To the southwest gable is a relatively large addition with a shallow-pitched corrugated-iron lean-to roof. The northeast-facing front elevation is asymmetrical, featuring to the left a doorway with flat-panel timber door, and to the right a similar doorway followed by two relatively broad windows with metal frames. No other openings exist to the building, though evidence of two small windows at the rear elevation survives only as filled-in modern blockwork. A rendered chimneystack stands at the northwest gable, with cast-iron rainwater goods to the front.

A shorter building shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1830–31 bears a horseshoe symbol indicating a forge, though it was not recorded in contemporary valuation. The revised Ordnance Survey map of 1856–58 shows a similar structure. The 1856 valuation records a forge and smith's shop measuring 29 feet by 21 feet by 7½ feet, along with a house of 30 by 21 by 8½ feet. In 1856, both properties were in the hands of James McLaughlin, remaining so until 1868 when Daniel McLaughlin became occupier. Successive occupiers included Robert James McLaughlin (from 1893–94), Elizabeth McLaughlin (from 1908), Hugh McLaughlin (from 1928), and Thomas Scott (from 1963 to at least 1972). The building had assumed its present form by 1901 as shown on the Ordnance Survey map of that year. Valuations refer to the property as an 'office' after 1856, a general term for outbuildings of various descriptions. The date when the forge ceased operation is unclear.

Immediately to the northwest stands a slightly smaller single-storey vernacular house, postdating the forge and first appearing on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1856–58. It is finished in whitewashed roughcast with a slated gabled roof with rendered gable chimneystacks and parapets. The northeast-facing front elevation features a left-of-centre doorway with timber-sheeted door, a window to the left, and two more to the right, all with horned timber sash frames. Small attic-level windows with fixed single-pane timber frames exist to the southeast and northwest gables, with two further windows of recent timber frames to the rear. Both buildings are in a relatively poor state of repair and the house is unoccupied.